Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.

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I had a post almost ready to go about this song since Tuesday, but I haven’t had a chance to finish it. It’s tentatively titled “Sweet New Jamz from Realpeople (sort of Beirut)”. Catchy title, right? (In reality, it’s only sort of new–the song was released as a Beirut song on Natalie Portman’s mixtape.)

Zach Condon had a electronic project before Beirut called Realpeople and he recently brought it back with his Beirut/ Realpeople double EP. It’s out of that style that songs like this one and “Scenic World” (one of my Beirut favs) come. Dancey electronic music–I’m not usually a fan–plus Condon’s melancholy croon somehow work really well together on this song. His melodies and croon are just so compelling.

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Alright, I had never listened very closely to this peppy goth-tinged new wave song from 1985. But upon further review â€“ the bile heâ€™s spewing! No wonder these guys never got signed to a major label! I wonder what A&R team tempted them with glittering visions of drugs and illicit sex before revealing a contract replete with financial terms competitive with the retail or food service industries. Sad to say, not much has changed in 25 years â€¦

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So I was listening to This American Life last weekend and this song comes on at the end that totally grabs my attention. Luckily for me, being the erudite story tellers that they are at TAL, all the songs they use in the show are listed with each episode on the website. I don’t know how I’ve never heard this song before, it’s so freakin’ catchy. It even has hand claps!!

Addendum: **I’m also semi-obssesed with this. I know it’s silly, but I think that the combination of production quality, lyrics and delivery just make this one of the best parodies I’ve ever seen.